Burial of Perry Sanford at Oak Hill Cemetery, Battle Creek
A historic site in Battle Creek, Michigan, a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing, Burial of Perry Sanford at Oak Hill Cemetery, Battle Creek is filed here for what the record attaches to it. NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad. The archive files it under dark history, Underground Railroad history and the Underground Railroad. The dossier holds 3 documented facts — a documented spine with no haunting reports attached. The site is open to visitors.
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Is Burial of Perry Sanford at Oak Hill Cemetery, Battle Creek haunted?
No claims are filed here — the record keeps this place for its documented history, not for a haunting on file.
The record — long form
On Easter Monday night in 1847, Perry Sanford was among twelve freedom seekers who slipped out of Kenton County, Kentucky, crossed the river at Covington, and reached Michigan with two dollars and fifty cents of holiday wages between them. Months later, on the morning of August 17, a party of thirteen Kentuckians hit the Quaker farms of Cass County — a planned raid, fed by a spy, that dragged nine freedom seekers out of their fields. Sanford was one of the nine.
The raid that failed
What happened next reached the newspapers: Black and white farmers intercepted the Kentuckians on the road and forced the whole party into court, and while the case ground on, the prisoners in the county jail 'escaped' by slow degrees until the raiders went home with nothing. Erastus Hussey rode down from Battle Creek trying to warn the farms, an hour too late. The fury in Kentucky over the failed raid is part of the record that produced the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
Most of the rescued party ran on to Canada. Sanford chose Battle Creek — work at the Nichols and Shepard factory, the Workingmen's Society, the Black Masonic lodge, organizing Emancipation Day celebrations. In 1884 he told the Sunday Morning Call the whole story for its 'Out of Bondage' series, and in 1905 he died a free man in the town he'd chosen. The grave marker in Oak Hill Cemetery is the last physical evidence of the journey — the file's entry is, literally, the stone.
Two accounts on file
HISTORIC_SITE
CEMETERY
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.
The conductor’s grave—where Sanford rests.
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National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing
NPS Network to Freedom
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 48MI01, source row 752. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened.
UGRR enrichment wave 3; VERIFY task auto-queued.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Documented history
NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The detail is preserved in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceBurial of Perry Sanford at Oak Hill Cemetery, Battle Creek is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The record appears in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceSanford’s work is documented. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. Sources including 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' carry the record. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.
Verified historyNational Park Service
Sources on file
- 01Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01National Park Service · government · A1
- 02NPS Network to Freedom listingNational Park Service · government · A1
- 03Underground RailroadWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
Field notes & open questions
Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 48MI01, source row 752. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened.